reviews of best burgers in Berlin

Tommi’s Burger Joint

Bang for your bucks

The truth and nothing but the truth

If the art of great food lies in the art of presenting it as beautiful as possible, the people at Tommi’s are damned bad at their job. You get your order in a simple basket where the fries are piled up, together with a burger wrapped in white paper. Branding? Nope. Experience? Nope. Sloppy? No, it’s on purpose, because the entire place feels a bit trashy and improvised. Remember, ‘raunchy’ is considered an asset in Berlin (and in Berlin only, except in all the hipster capitals where they want to copy Berlin). It’s a sign of authenticity. And Tommi’s makes a great effort to win the top prize in this category.

The menu is written on a cardboard above the counter, there are strange artifacts everywhere (a Kate Bush poster…), the lighting is similar to those on a christmas tree, with the slight difference that it’s apparently christmas all year in Tommi’s. Do we like it? You bet, because this place really looks as if it couldn’t afford anything better when they started, and has become a popular venue also to its own surprise.

That was a long story, dude. Ze burgers?!

Ignore the presentation. Hell, also ignore the fries, because they look and taste just like those at the big M (french, thin, expendable). Also ignore the looks of the bread, it looks a bit soft and moist. But the moment you put your teeth in the burger… everything just comes together.

They basically only do one burger at Tommi’s, but they do it really good. You can taste the patty crispy clear, there is no overload of salads. As far as price/value goes, this one is definitely high up in the lower price categories, a bit better than Burgeramt for example. Yes, there are better burgers in Berlin, but they’re also much more expensive. Tommi’s doesn’t try to impress you by overdoing it. It gives you bang for your bucks, and that is definitely a thing we like about Berlin. It just works (we know, that sounds a lot like an Apple ad, and all MacBook users know that’s bullshit, but at Tommi it really does just work).

Famous last words?

We thought the black-and-white portrait of an old bearded guy (think George Clooney in ten years) and the cardboard saying this is the guy that bought the burger to Iceland and Berlin was a good joke. Turns out it apparently IS the real story of Tommi’s! And we always thought Björk was vegan!?